"I think it would be the right thing to do to withdraw that report and apologize," the minister said. "We have six Irish people who are now dead as a result of a tragedy because a balcony collapsed. No other reason.

"The nature and tone of the article is a disgrace … newspaper editors need to realise how sensitive this issue is."

The Times wrote that the J-1 visa that the students were on had become “an embarrassment for Ireland.”

“The work-visa program that allowed for the exchanges has in recent years become not just a source of aspiration, but also a source of embarrassment for Ireland, marked by a series of high-profile episodes involving drunken partying and the wrecking of apartments in places like San Francisco and Santa Barbara.”

The Times stated that “The program has been a source of discomfort. James Howard, 24, who went to San Diego in 2011, said it was basically “party central.”

“There were 18 of us sharing a two-bedroom apartment, and the hundreds of Irish students around us were in a similar situation,” Mr. Howard said.

“It was my first time away on my own for any length of time. I’m glad I did it, but once was enough,” he said.

The Times also quoted an Irish Voice/Irish Central column on the wrecking of an apartment in San Francisco last year.

“Cahir O’Doherty, the arts and culture editor of The Irish Voice, wrote a column in 2014 expressing distress at “the callous destruction unleashed by these loaded Irish students” of a house rented in the Sunset District of San Francisco.

“If you know the city you’ll know Sunset is one of the more desirable locations in which to buy a home,” he wrote. “So those J-1 students actually caught a big break by being rented to in the first place. Nice payback, guys.”

“They ripped chandeliers from the ceilings, they broke doors and they smashed windows; they even punched holes in the walls,” he wrote. “Then they abandoned the place without a heads-up or a word of apology.”

The Times said the program as evidenced by Facebook on the The Santa Barbara/Isla Vista Facebook page set up by the Irish students” offers “a flavor of the work-hard, party-hard lifestyle. Call-outs for car-pooling and accommodations are interspersed with requests for house party sites. Some bars home in on the feel-good, free-spending atmosphere, offering special promotions to the Irish students.”

The paper has come in for fierce criticism on Twitter from Irish in Ireland and abroad.